From Berlin to Grinnell: Maria Bradford's Life Is Remembered

BRADFORD, GERSON, FRANK

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/4/2010 at 18:37:16

The Grinnell Herald-Register (Grinnell, Iowa) Dec. 16, 1996
By Nancy Frank

FROM BERLIN TO GRINNELL: MARIA BRADFORD'S LIFE IS REMEMBERED

Maria Bradford, born Maria Gerson, died early Sunday, Dec. 8, after a relatively short and almost painless fight with cancer.

Maria was born in Berlin in 1911, the third and last child of a Jewish physician and his wife. Maria was educated to be a kindergarten teacher and would have remained happily in Berlin except for Hitler's rise to power. Though raised Lutheran, by 1935 Maria was forced to wear an arm band that proclaimed her Jewish heritage. In 1937, on one of the last boats out, Maria arrived at Ellis Island with the clothes on her back, a blanket and $35. She became the governess for a family in Madison, Wis., where she met and in 1941 married Dr. Curtis Bradford, at that time instructor of English literature at the University of Wisconsin. Maria was fortunate in her flight; her mother died in Theresienstadt, and of her family only her two brothers survived by Holocaust.

After short sojourns at Rockford College, Illinois, and the armed services, Maria and Curtis arrived in Grinnell in 1946 with the first two of their four children, Maria (Polly) and Lewis, and Walter on the way. By 1949 they were happily ensconced at 1324 Main. Here they were joined by Nancy. Over the years Maria enjoyed her role as a professor's wife. Students and faculty were always welcome in her home, and both Curtis and Maria enjoyed entertaining newcomers to the college community.

However, Maria always maintained that her life began at 55 when she started working as a nursing assistant at Grinnell General Hospital. After Curtis's death of cancer in 1969, this occupation kept Maria happy and busy until her retirement in 1986. She was a force to be reckoned with, and needless to say there was no slacking on her shift! But she was never too busy to teach patients or staff the latest folk dance steps or the perfect exercise for their stomach muscles.

After her retirement at 75, life was filled with travel. Maria enjoyed trips to Australia, Fiji, Alaska, Kenya and Europe, not to mention frequent trips to visit her children and seven grandchildren in Chicago, Massachusetts and Berlin. When not on the road, Maria could often be seen around Grinnell walking or biking. If you don't recognize Maria so far, perhaps the description "the little white-haired lady on the bicycle" will bring her to mind. Grinnell will miss her and so will we.

Nancy Frank, Maria Bradford's daughter, lives in Essex, Mass.